The coronavirus pandemic has drastically altered life as we know it, and one can only speculate what awaits us in the winter season to come. In mid-March 2020, many of us in the Chinese medicine health care field were unexpectedly forced to turn our brick-and-mortar practices into virtual telemedicine in order to assist our patients back to health. Fortunately, this transition from practitioner-performed acupuncture to telepatient-performed acupressure has the potential to be an easy and effective shift.
Many randomized clinical trials (RCTs) utilize some form of acupressure (toothpick or retractable needle) as sham treatment. RCT results demonstrate that when compared to no treatment, sham acupuncture and verum acupuncture are generally effective (approximately 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively). RCT researchers have thus concluded: "Although there may be evidence to support the efficacy of acupuncture therapy for the intended condition, the results between sham and real acupuncture are insignificant."1
Although researcher interpretations of these results raise questions about acupuncture's purported mechanism of action, the bottom line is that both modalities, acupuncture and acupressure, obtain beneficial effects. Additionally, acupuncture and acupressure outcomes are statistically significant when compared to no treatment.
As practitioners of Chinese medicine, we know patients' primary complaints are generally myriad disharmonies. As cosmetic facial acupuncturists, we learn beauty is viewed as a balance of internal harmony reflected on the skin surface. A disharmony in the Zang-Fu organs, meridians, qi, blood, and fluids can be viewed as the core of cosmetic-related complaints. An imbalance of any or all of these can be reflected on the face in the form of wrinkles, muscle tone changes, decreased skin elasticity, skin problems, marks, a withered, pale, dry appearance, and more.
The etiology of these conditions is embedded in the pattern recognition, diagnosis and treatment of qi, blood and fluids as they influence and are influenced by the elements, organs and meridians.
Step #1: Treat the Root Cause
In order to tailor your patient's acupressure treatment, begin by establishing their underlying pattern of disharmony. Use points on the body to treat the root cause; then add face points to address the specific facial concerns. With their finger or an instrument-assisted acupressure tool, instruct your patient to massage or apply pressure to points from the suggested list below:
Kidney / Bladder points:
Spleen / Stomach points:
Lungs / Large Intestine points:
Heart / Small Intestine Pericardium / Triple Heater points:
Liver / Gallbladder points:
Conception Vessel points:
Governing Vessel points:
Step #2: Address Any Specific Facial Concerns
Now strategically add face points from the suggested list of points below:
Point Explanations
Similar to tuina, acupressure is commonly used throughout Asian countries to treat many health conditions. Whether in-office or on-camera, acupressure is a beneficial treatment. Assisting your patient with acupressure to enhance health and beauty can be rewarding for both you and your patient. In addition to being effective, it is easy to perform, with results that have the potential to be long lasting.
Reference
Editor's Note: Ask the Expert! If you would like your questions or comments addressed this column, please send them to: info@hamptonsacupuncture.com (put "Ask the Expert" in the subject line).
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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